Mark Cuban: NBA should dump fan voting for All-Star game

DALLAS (AP) - Mavericks owner Mark Cuban suggested the NBA should do away with fan balloting for the All-Star game, saying the leading total of 1.5 million votes for Golden State's Stephen Curry was so low it was "embarrassing."

Cuban said Friday the roster should be expanded to 14 players from the current 12. He said coaches or general managers or both should choose the teams.

The outspoken owner said the low total for Curry was evidence that the "system's broken, absolutely, positively broken."

"And fans are allowed to vote more than once, right?" Cuban said "That's embarrassing. To think that we couldn't get people to vote enough times. No one even tried to hack it. That's how bored they are."

Toronto outfielder Jose Bautista led baseball's All-Star fan voting last year with about 5.9 million ballots.

Cuban said he didn't know how NBA All-Star voting was trending in recent years, and said he favors people voting if the numbers were better because "then the fans have spoken."

"But when the number of voters isn't enough to even get anybody to notice ... that means basically .01 percent of NBA fans cared enough to vote," Cuban said.

Curry finished about 42,000 votes ahead of LeBron James. The All-Star game is Feb. 15 in New York.